Will Alien: Covenant introduce Xenomorph Egg Morphing?

I didn't think they were especially big.

If a queen is involved does
the royal facehugger come
from a woman who is very
fertile? Or at the very least
a woman? I mean she is egg
morphed right? Does men
become warriors/drones
and woman queens. Do they
keep queens eggs apart
from drone eggs? Did the
Derelict only have male eggs?

@Oduodu

Everyone has their own interpretation, but I have always seen the hosts as mere incubators, and that it is the embryo carried by the face hugger that determines what type of Alien is born. In terms of sex this is how I see it...

Drone (Alien, Alien 3, Alien Rez) Male, infertile, born from a host implanted by a normal face hugger.

Warrior (Aliens) female, infertile, born from a host implanted by a normal face hugger.

Queen - Female, Fertile born from a host implanted by a royal face hugger.

Warriors are only ever born when there seems to be no viable threat, and aside from egg morphing it shows that only the fertile castes can reproduce, plus it also begs the question - what would a fertile male look like and how would his fertility affect the lifecycle?

Gender is redundant to any Alien other than the Queen.  Drones, warriors - same thing.

There is no queen.

Going back to my theory of the Butterfly life-cycle ...

What if the Alien's acidic blood is the actual Enzyme (molecular acid) that is (maybe) used for the (egg) morphing process? ... the corrosive action of the blood is probably not due to a single acid but a complex of enzymes ... it just so happens to be a great defence mechanism as well ...

Yes thats a idea, and maybe its not the Acid Blood but the Xeno can produce something similar that is less potent but acts as the Enzymes in the Metamorphosis of a Butterfly

We dont know for sure yet what the Xenomorph total procreative Life Cycle is.... maybe SM has more clues from the Book and what they worked on..

Alien it was determined that the Organism is born from Egg, and when it reaches Adult it then Egg Morphs a victim using the victims genetic material to make a new Egg/spore....   there is a size difference but we dont know if that was intended plan and well maybe the Larger Egg Morphs will shrink down in time.... we cant say thus that they would produce larger of different Face Huger as the plan was at the time before shooting that the end process was to simply re-create the Egg/Spore Stage.

Aliens showed us that a Queen lays Eggs, it does not show us other means and it led us to assume that the Derelict was Eggs laid by a Queen but this does not have to mean a Queen has laid them on that ship... the Eggs could have been transported.

Alien 3 tried to show us that a different kind of Face Huger could create a Queen the Royal Face Huger but it never really explained what determined a Royal Face Huger.

Alien R showed us that the Xenomorph DNA could be harnessed and modified and that a Hybrid Organism cold procreate differently too (Queen giving Birth to the New Born).

Promethethus while not showing us the Chicken/Egg as far as Goo/Egg, it did show us that Genetic Material related to the Xenomorph could be used to create Organisms with Xeno DNA... and a sequence of events could lead to the creation of a Organism similar to a Face Huger with the same purpose.

Its now if they would try and re-introduce the Egg Morph or having Xeno related Organism/Creation being able to Genetically alter a victims DNA itself to produce a Hybrid or Egg. We dont know if they would go this route or how much down this path we shall see.

"I think Ridley will show us HOW A XENO can be made, but maybe not How the Original was made and by that i mean the first of its kind. 

Or they could show how this happened as a Flash Back, and then have David Re-create similar events to produce hopefully a slightly different kind."

That could alright because then people can still wonder how the first alien was done. This could still keep some mystery about it, which I like.

I like the idea that David in a way is responsible for creating a monster. This doesn't mean that he needs to be evil but that it is an accident that is born out of curiosity.

I would be under the impression that David is more than a nieve boy and curious i think he would be curious but also cunning..

Fassbender said he likes playing David as he is Creepy, and so i think David is more Sinister than Ash, yet more charming than Bishop at the same time.

He will fool the Covenant Crew just as Satan did with Eve, with Agenda, that he achieves with Deceit and Charm.

If we were to look at the Alien as a weapon, which has been designed to be the perfect organism, we can have possibility of more.

What i mean is, the Alien itself could have a lot of different ways to reproduce depending on the number of hosts available. 

In Alien, a small crew so theres no point in a Queen. A lone Alien would be enough to capture and reproduce. 

In Aliens its a colony so a large number of eggs would need to be produced in order to survive.

Alien 3, again a large number of life forms. Count people and animals, its enough to need a queen.

Could it be argued that the Queen in Aliens was small given the number of hosts? If so, what size of Queen would you need for a planet?

There is also the possibility that we have not seen the every stage of the Aliens life-cycle. 

@ ETB,

An Uber-Queen, a breed able to produce even more eggs, that is an awesome idea - I'm imagining sacs full of dozens of eggs, each laid like a giant a possibly a fully quadrupedal xeno... the Empress, maybe? 

@Gavin 

Thats sort of the idea, imagine the Aliens in the second film were just the start of a colony. All we seen was a Queen in its early stages and worker drones.

Could we have the possibility of Warrior Aliens? Creatures that are bigger, faster, take more damage and all round nasty. After seeing that model, I like the idea of an Alien King. What about heavily armoured Aliens that act as a Royal Guard for a fully grown Queen.

If one accepts that an Alien could egg morph it's former host, egg morphing is potentially more efficient, particularly since you need to wait around 3 days at least for a Queen to start laying, and depending on how many hosts you have access too.

Thats really the point I'm getting at. As a weapon, the Alien could adapt to the environment and develop depending on its hosts.

As with every thing else the context of the Egg Morph is within the context of the catalyser and the black goo.

The black goo radicalises its victim and over stimulates the reproductive elements of its host. (The hammerpede shows worm characteristics when its broken in two but reproduces an invasive sexualised entity). Fifield who had been smoking cannibis and Holloway who had high alcohol levels and were more sophisticated organisms may have had a much slower but still catastrophic re organising of their molecular structure.

The zenomorph is a bio weapon whose genesis is connected to the goo and when it attacks its victim the serum (held its elongated skull) may be a developed hybrid of what attacked Fifield and Holloway.

If we take A L I E N as a model three men have been attacked two were morphing into what might both be Face huggers. Perhaps the genetic code of the lifecycle is such that when a Zeno attacks mankind and it has multiple targets it will look to break down male mankind in an attack based on ascendancy and supremacy and the male chromosomes are a forma for an aggressive invasive re organised face hugger. Whereas when a Zeno detects a female human kind the emphasis is rape submission and hosting. My recollection is that in A L I E N S we meet one live host who is female.

Is there anywhere in those two films where that notion is contradicted. Notice also that Shaw generates a Trilobite which bares female reproductive characteristics and leads to a deaconess. Note the composition of the A C crew and the high and probably equal number of females to males. 

Which female reproductive characteristics does the Trilobite possess?  The long phallic tube it forces into the Engineer (where the Deacon gestates) seems more male than female.

I think MJ is referring to the assortment of vulvas that is Mr. T's face.

Fair point on the look of the things - but, practically, they all contain more phallic objects.

I think we need to remember we are talking a Totally Alien Species and so its not right to try and connect it with anything we have on Earth, certainly not as far as Mamals

Yes we have the Queen that lays Eggs, but there is not proof that the Queen cant do this on her own (Parthenogenesis)

While the Egg Morph is handy, once a Queen is set up this is the best way to create Eggs hands down and it does not require a Host to produce...

The Egg Morph we have to assume if a Organism tries to do the same with the Alien Covenant Crew and there is only 10 of them.... (so far cast) then they would only be able to create a maximum of 10 Eggs (this would assume a Xenomorph is already on that world, if not and it needed a host then if the Covenant has 10 crew then we would only see up to 9 Egg Morphs.

Just because the Trilobite implanted a Embryo does not mean its Female, or Male  like the Face Hugger, i think we have to assume they have no SEX not in the context of life on Earth..... so they are Asexual and that they only need to Manipulate a Hosts DNA and so it does not matter if the Host is Female/Male.

@ S M & Aorta

The trilobite lays something inside the Engineer rather than stimulates reproduction through offering a male spoor and whilst yes I made a connection with the vulva I also thought of the eventual projection orally into the Engineer as an over stimulated clitoris from amongst multiple vulva. A man may see it otherwise. 

@BD Curiously the idea of mythos being separate from our own history and functionality is almost the opposite of my view. Deeply routed myth whether sub created or historical tells us more of whom we are not simply allegory but we find great truths about the story we have come into to, myth allows the freedom to understand more of whom we are. As I have said before the foundation of the A L I E N mythos for me is routed in separating out procreation as a blessed and sponsored part of the story and making it something devoid of a moral compass which merely exists for its own sake to achieve either retribution, punishment or destruction in a nihilistic manner. The precise reason why it was created will hopefully be narrated in A C. If its an accident a meddling that went to far that would make it a morality tale BUT for us. Elizabeth said we are them and they are us what the Engineers got wrong is us getting it wrong through myth making.

I say all of this because the radical sexualising of the strain that took place with the goo came from "us" and the imagery that Ridders uses leads me to not to see that radical sexualising as separate but connected and therefore to see echoes in the mythos behaviour of radicalised female and male behaviour is for me a template from which to perceive these matters.

Some of what is offered is about increasingly desperate ways of film makers to make money but some of the creative thought that has gone into the movies stands up to further examination as an exercise in what happens when you divorce our procreative programming from its moral context.         

Consider again the context of terrorism. 

If you look at the MORB as a punishment rather than simply a means of murder (this presupposes the MORB biology was manipulated or outright engineered for use as a weapon) then the natural pathways of reproduction can be subverted to achieve something worse than extinction, that being torture.

In this context something like Egg morphing becomes an act of aggression, an expression of hostile aesthetics. Insult to injury, the enemy forcibly transformed into the engine of it's own destruction.

Egg morphing to produce a Queen would hold as the Queen would now produce eggs genetically tailored to its victims. It does seem likely that the biology adapts to its environment via the life cycle process.

I'm praying that Ridley puts in the eggmorphing! So much more horrific than dare I say even the ALIEN itself. AND, it's new and compelling territory to explore. Cameron's Queen was okay but this is Ridley's ALIEN and I do believe that both Giger (if he were alive now) and Ridley would want the eggmorphing included. I believe he would not have put it in the Director's cut of ALIEN had he not felt that strongly about it. I also remember Danny McBride or Michael Fassbender saying that ALIEN: COVENANT is a straight up horror flick! This is supposed to lead into ALIEN, not ALIENS. 

would be awesome if they could manage to take the best of the life cycle of all alien movies including prometheus to show in covenant something beautiful and scary alike. I mean they can go back to the proto aliens and some new aliens while holding up for the one we all love and know to pop up last act of covenant movie. Then the alien can morph someone into an egg, which is what happened in the original. They needed the alien to morph someone. I am quite curious how it all plays out. Because we see the facehugger scene, if could be a human egg or a queen egg. They have the right in the world to contribute everything :-) i know how i would do it :-)

Nice to revisit a old Topic and i am not sure if i covered this before?

But i think in some way yes something similar has to be introduced, and Sacrifice is a theme and i would think it would be cool if they went with how when its a Xenos time to check out they donate their body to the greater good and they use their body to be broken down so its Genetic Material can form to make the hives,  maybe they also use Hosts Genetic Material like this?

i made a Eggs and Cabbage post a while back, were a Cabbage can essentially die/rot away and from the decomposing material a new Cabbage would arise... well its better than that, you could rip up a Cabbage into 10 piles and it would decompose but then 10 Cabbages would sprout from its place. Basically Clone of themselves from dying decomposing remains.

So the Morphing of Genetic Material to form a Egg i think is something at least in some way is explored....

Organisms within the Echinoderm family  can replicate themselves in a similar fashion, it would be like a Human who gets their Arms cut off, and then these Arms will Regrow a Human and the Human who lost their Arms would regrow more Arms.

I would think this added to the Xenomorph would be interesting where they can use their bodies to decompose and then change into Eggs.

And also if they can do the same with Genetic Material of other Life it can infect... so like a Parasitic Virus

I am a lover of the egg morphing concept and though some believe certain audience groups wont accept this as they r expecting the egg to come from a queen, I don't think ridley is going to be swayed by that. as seen in Prometheus, he isn't just going to take the audience by the hand and guide them through the movie as they expect. he has left lots of questions unanswered from Prometheus which doesn't sit well with a lot of people but I don't think that bothers him, its what he wanted after all as he is making more movies to answer these questions. his original concept was egg morphing and I think and hope he keeps that thought process. its more horrifying and he has said after it was announced he was revisiting the franchise that he was going to 'scare the f**k out of us'. also the introduction of the black goo shows its effects to be leaning towards morphing aspects and there would seem to be a connection between the goo and the xeno. saying that I def think there is room for both concepts in the alien universe. iv theorised before that all xenos could have the capacity of being a queen, it just depends on its environment, as they have shown themselves to be adaptable. on the nostromo, the original xeno was on a ship in the middle of space with a very limited number of hosts available so molting into a queen wouldn't serve much purpose. at hadleys hope, there was a much larger population and they were on a planetoid so there was more need for a greater number of eggs in a short space of time so a queen would be required for this? 

I always thought that egg-morphing was more inline with the whole Alien movie concept. I thought the idea of a queen (like insects) churning out eggs like an assembly line was more mainstream in ideology and therefore more easily assimilated by an audience.

The idea of a human being being melted/transformed/morphing into an large alien egg (with a alien creature inside) makes one kind of uncomfortable. Someone mentioned up here already about the possibility of the alien creature/egg maintaining some sentience of its previous life--Now that can make you squeamish.

Imagine you are thinking about working your golf game, but instead you are immobile, looking like "Farm-Pride's Grade AAA best" with a face-hugger floating around inside of you...

An Alien concept deserves alien physiology, morphology, landscapes, and processes different to what we are used to.

I really hope they bring it front and center...Bring on the egg morphers! 

someone even theorised that the egg and face hugger r 2 different creatures. the egg uses its root like apendages to sustain the hugger and when a possible host ventures too close it opens up, transferring the rest of its energy to the hugger.

"on the nostromo, the original xeno was on a ship in the middle of space with a very limited number of hosts available so molting into a queen wouldn't serve much purpose. at hadleys hope, there was a much larger population and they were on a planetoid so there was more need for a greater number of eggs in a short space of time so a queen would be required for this? "

Queens continue laying eggs regardless of the number of available hosts, as evidenced at Hadley.  If the Nostromo creature could've changed in to a Queen it could've laid a tonne of eggs to be taken back to Earth.

nah

yeh

hhhhmmmm

LOL

Yeah i have to agree with SM

I think a Queen will lay any number of Eggs regardless of where it was, i think what limits the Queen would be the space to work with.

So if a Queen got on the Nostromo and killed Ripley before she could Self Destruct the ship i would assume it would lay a large amount of Eggs but it would be limited to Space it has to lay them.

I think the other theory could hold a bit of weight, if we maybe consider that WHAT IF... the Process needs Genetic Material from a Host to allow it to lay Eggs and then maybe the number of Hosts obtained for this purpose would determine the number of Eggs laid... but this is purely a speculation and not to be considered factual.

I hope they do show us the Egg Morph and maybe how it links to the Xenomorph and Queen... is there a connection?  Would it finally show us that a Egg Morph leads to a Queen?

Would the next TWO movies show us how the Eggs came to be, and if a Queen or Egg laying Organism is needed first or not?

I hope so.

lol

its all fiction, requires an open mind but obv some r unable to have an open mind.

Keep on sniping there, champ!

"I think a Queen will lay any number of Eggs regardless of where it was, i think what limits the Queen would be the space to work with."

There was a bit in Rex Pickett's Alien3 script that had a close up on Ripley's bioscan that showed "thousands upon thousands of microscopic eggs". I like that idea since it infers that, like human women, Queens are born with every egg they're ever going to lay.

will do

Looking at the leak images from new trailer..

I would say very possible...

Yeah, i hope it is in Covenant, imagine David giving a run down on the morphing process - "And here i have one that has been maturing most promisingly, you can't run as you see i have secured you to the wall with the life forms excreta ", aaaaaagh.

Sorry, but I'm just not a whole "Eggmorphing" fan. It's kinda like "Time Travel" in that it can just easily "cause" things to happen just to make a story progress. But, to each their own.

@Starlogger, thats ok my friend, its an original script idea from the first alien story, it would be good just to see it once in the alien story time line.